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appraisals for divestiture and opening new lands for resettlement; and/or (d) expanding personnel,
equipment, transport, and land mapping capabilities through additional infusion of funds.
The Government Valuation Department is responsible for assisting councils in levying rates
for local revenue generation, for monitoring and advising on legislative and procedural reforms (e.g.,
the current government considerations on replacing the property transfer tax with the capital gains
tax), for capital valuations of private sector housing, and for general advisement on ground rents,
office allocation, land allocation, land identification, economic ground rent, land value, and sale of
government housing. The GRZ also has approximately 15,000 government houses. The Government
Valuation Department (GVD) sees a continued and growing role at the policy and implementation level
in assisting GRZ policy to introduce phased economic rentals, and to provide funds to manage the
portfolio more effectively (GVD 1993). It remains unclear to what extent the GVD will or should be
responsible for fixing prices for land allocations by the Lands Department or setting economic ground
rents for leasehold property. The Lands Department would argue that a separate capacity within the
MOL ought to be developed to assist the Commissioner of Lands in these areas, particularly for
agricultural properties. Alternatively, it could be argued that a merger, or greater integration, of
functions is needed.
The institutions responsible for implementing the various functions of land policy are currently
highly dispersed with inadequate coordination among ministries. As indicated in chapter 3, the
Commissioner of Lands must rely on a nearly autonomous Surveys Department for surveying and
mapping. Decisions on subdivision must come from the Ministry of Environment. Land use planning
appraisals are made by the land use planning section of the Ministry of Agriculture, while no
department has the capacity for conducting research on land policy. It is too much to expect the
various ministries to make expeditious decisions in a seamless fashion. An overhaul of departments
responsible for land policy is needed, with careful attention given to clarifying roles and
responsibilities. In some cases, the establishment of new line departments (land policy analysis) may
be needed. In other cases, mergers or consolidation may be justified.
E. Subdivisions
Various attempts were made in the course of this work to determine the rationale and criteria
for decisions related to land subdivisions. As indicated earlier, the Ministry of Environment is
responsible for the control of land use and for formulating conditions under which land can be used
in certain areas. The land use division of the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for advising on
land use decisions for agricultural properties including making site evaluations and project plans for
newly opened lands. Policy related to subdivisions has important land market implications, particularly
if subdivisions are tightly controlled and constrain land access. Unfortunately, no data could be located
on applications for subdivisions involving either of these ministries or the MOL. Data on number of
approved lease subdivisions are reported in chapter 3, but these data would not necessarily reflect the
existence or scale of problems should subdivision policy be constraining transfers. Furthermore, no
official circular could be located that clearly articulates the criteria used to make actual decisions on
whether to permit subdivisions in individual cases. The "General Notes on Farm Subdivisions," dated
1978, in figure 1.1 was extracted from ministry files and, according to certain ministry personnel, is
still effectively used.
According to these notes, a number of considerations must be taken into account before any
farm subdivision can be implemented. Such considerations may be based on land capability, farm size,